SAManage, a provider of on-demand (SaaS) IT Management services with an R&D office in Israel, announced today that it has secured an undisclosed amount of Series A Funding from Xenia Venture Capital and existing investors to help support its growth and development of new SaaS-based services.

The company, which was was founded in 2007 by Doron Gordon, offers solutions for IT Asset Management, IT Risks Management, License Management and more. In September 2008, SAManage made its IT Contract Management software available for Salesforce.com users as a free AppExchange application. The software enables users to manage the organization and tracking of IT contracts, software licenses and subscriptions. 

SaaS Industry outlook

According to an InformationWeek article by Andrew Conry-Murray in November 2008, a Forrester Research report released at the time predicts that while SaaS-based IT management currently accounts for 1% of IT management software, it is expected to grow to 10% of the market by 2013 because it offers cheaper and faster deployments. The report also predicts that enterprises with 1,000 or more employees will account for 50% of SaaS installations in 2009 and that while the Big Four (BMC, IBM, HP and CA) are active in the cloud, “complex applications can’t quickly be retooled for SaaS, giving upstarts time to secure enough customers to flourish.”

Additional SaaS Information

• An Aberdeen Group survey of over 130 enterprises found that top companies are implementing SaaS successfully and “view their use or planned migration to SaaS as a long-term solution.”
• Research from Gartner analyst Michael Maoz predicts that by the year 2012, 30 percent of investments in CRM will be via software-as-a-service (SaaS). (via Lauren McKay of DestinationCRM.com) 
• Interest in SaaS has lead to several acquisitions by vendors, including Cisco’s acquisition of WebEx, Dell’s purchase of MessageOne and Google’s purchase of Postini among others.
• Other Israeli SaaS companies include: Clarizen, G.ho.st, Magic Software, PNMsoft, Confidela and Nolio Ltd. 

Much attention in the news was paid to Israel’s operation in Gaza during the week of December 28, 2009, including to online technology related to it. Different Israeli government branches, from the IDF to Israeli Consulates in the U.S., began to leverage popular social media tools, such as blogs, YouTube and Twitter, to explain the purpose of Israel’s operation and its objectives, while supporters around the world used the same mediums and others, such as Facebook, to show their support for Israel and its troops. During the week it also became clear that the conflict wouldn’t be bound to physical operations as several Israeli sites became the targets of cyberterrorism.

Despite the conflict, there was plenty of news of unrelated innovations coming from Israel. Funds were raised and contracts were signed in Israel’s IT and cleantech sectors and announcements of foreign companies opening R&D offices were made. Not all the news that wasn’t related to the conflict was good though. For all these stories and more, check out this week’s special edition of Israel-related headlines from the week of December 28, 2008 below.

Israel-Hamas Conflict (Technology side)

1. Israeli news site down, blames cyber attack

2. Muslim hackers attack Israeli websites as Gaza strikes continue

3. Israel Backed by Army of Cyber-Soldiers

4. War sickens me, but I stand with Israel (HelpUsWin*)

5. The Big War You Never Hear Much About

6. Israeli Consulate to tweet about Gaza war

Cleantech

7. Israel’s SolarEdge Raises $23M to Crush Shady Solar

8. BrightSource Energy signs contract with Siemens for solar-powered generator

Investments and deals

9. 2009: Year of the survival of the fittest

10. Bluephoenix Announces Multi-Million Dollar Modernization Contract With a Large Scandinavian Bank

11. Intrinsyc Signs Soleus Licensing Agreement With ODM for Industrial PDA and LBS Phone
12. Oy Vey! Israeli VCs Exceptionally Gloomy on 2009

Information Technology

13. HCL opens office in Israel

14. Invention: Software research assistant

15. EMC continues to move forward

Miscellaneous

16. The American Idol for blogging superstars

17. One to Watch: Tvinci

18. Israeli’s documentary is drawing wide acclaim

19. MyHeritage Makes Family History Research Easier With Launch Of Family Tree Builder 3

20. Crude oil rises after Israeli attacks on Gaza roil Middle East

Israel Innovation 2.0 content related to Israel-Hamas conflict

21. Direct from the streets of Gaza… and Israel. How TechCrunch UK’s post could have read regarding UGC

22. Cyberterrorism against Israeli and American sites: How to Stay Secure

Video from IDF Spokeperson’s Unit TouTube Channel (Capt. Benjamin Rutland on the ground forces entering Gaza on 3 Jan. 2009)

*HelpUsWin is an online grassroots campaign helping to ensure that international coverage of the Campaign Against Hamas is balanced. To learn more about it or how you can become involved, please check out the HelpUsWin website.

During the week of October 19, 2008, startups in Israel and abroad continued to be warned to cut costs and be careful. Better Place (formerly known as Project Better Place) inked a deal with Australia and Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was rumored to abandon her efforts to build a new coalition government that would lead to her become Israel’s next prime minister. For links to these stories in full and the rest of the 16 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of October 19, 2008, check below.

Cleantech
1. Better Place to charge up Australia

2. Sunday Solar to power Israeli kibbutzim

3. While we wait for plug-in hybrids, electric cars bridge the gap

4. Funding becoming harder to get for green startups

Economy
5. Harris: Start-ups adapting to lean times

6. Not a merry Christmas ahead

7. Venture Capital Financing Slows Amid Economic Downturn

Information Technology
8. Tufin Technologies Adds Support for Fortinet With Release of SecureTrack 4.4

9. Contrust cleans up the social media mess

10. XMPie Releases One-to-One Print Marketing Solution

11. GlobalLogic Enters Israeli Software Product Development Market With Acquisition of InterObject

12. Oracle’s new acquisition includes Israeli R&D center

Miscellaneous
13. Minnesota eyes Israel markets

14. Explaining Israel’s high-tech success: Another view

15. Israeli Party Leader to Move for Elections

16. “Within ten years, everything will be cellular”

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

*About the Weekly Headlines image: The Star of David in the image was found on Flickr and is used under the Creative Commons license. It was originally uploaded by Flickr member, zeevveez. The overall Weekly Headlines image was designed by Lisa Damast.

There may be trouble lurking around the corner for Israel’s economy given the current instability of the global economy, but it hasn’t entirely stopped investments being made in Israeli companies and probably won’t. During the week of September 21, 2008, there were announcements of funds being raised in several sectors of Israel’s hit-tech industry, with the most impressive one by far being the $63M in fourth round funding that business transaction software provider, OpTier raised. (Of course, as a fourth round, that indicates the company is fairly established so presumably much less a gamble than any seed and early stage startups.) Some other headlines from Israel include Kfar Saba became the first city in Israel to go green, Commtouch received an award for its messaging security technology and HP has chosen the Technion as a research partner. For more on these and the rest of the 16 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of September 21, 2008, check the list below.

Cleantech
1. Kfar Saba becomes first city to go green

2. 21Ventures and Quercus Trust award grant to support solar research at Weizmann Institute

Investments and M&A
3. InstallFree Secures $8.5 Million in VC Funding

4. Adap.tv Lands $13M in Venture Funding

5. Norwest Venture Partners sets it sights on Israel with new appointment

6. OpTier raises $63 million in funding

Information Technology
7. SiSense Launches Pricing and General Availability of Its Prism Business Intelligence Software

8. Jacada Announces General Availability of Jacada® WorkSpace 5.0

9. Frost & Sullivan Honors Commtouch with European Messaging Security Technology Innovation of the Year Award

10. Point-of-Sale Advertising Goes High Tech

Miscellaneous
11. Local economy set to grow 4.5%

12. Israeli Internet Companies Seek Partners in Atlanta

13. How to Expand into the U.S. Market

14. Hi-tech salaries drop as inflation heats up

15. New Worlds: Technion chosen as HP research partner

16. Startup Helps Find What You Weren’t Looking for (SemantiNet)

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

Last week, 15 Israeli web companies had the opportunity to meet with investors and various executives in Silicon Valley, CA during the Israel Web Tour 2008. ClickTale Ltd., one of the selected 15, was chosen to participate for its innovative technology that allows Website owners and staff to record, watch and analyze user behavior on their sites as part of its hosted service.

According to ClickTale CEO, Tal Schwartz’s LinkedIn profile,

“ClickTale (www.clicktale.com) is a web analytics service that captures
and analyzes customer interactions inside web pages, revolutionizing
traditional web analytics that measure activity between pages.
ClickTale records and plays back customer’s every online interaction,
every mouse movement, click, scroll, keystroke, and window resize.
Subscribers to ClickTale have been able to increase revenues and
improve usability by minimizing abandonment of shopping carts,
maximizing completion of online forms, optimizing landing pages, and
running usability testing.”

ClickTale’s software can provide IT professionals with vital business intelligence to help meet the company’s bottom line. 

Company Facts

Founded in 2006.

Dr. Tal Schwartz, Co-Founder & CEO.

Arik Yavilevich, Co-Founder and CTO.

Website: www.clicktale.com

Starting today, 77 new technologies will be launched this week at Demo ’08 in California. Surprisingly, only one Israeli company – 2Win-Solutions – will be present at the conference. It will be launching a Beta-version of its KonoLive.

2Win-Solutions, a division of WinSoft SA, is a company that IT professionals should pay close attention to as it integrates digital documents, online form processing and digital signature technology in

    “affordable software products and services that address the needs of businesses and their customers to
    process and deliver digital documents in a collaborative environment.”

According to a news release, its latest product, KonoLive is an instant collaboration software that integrates “People, Activities and Content through a new layer of everyday collaboration tools.” The software uses Adobe Air and has been hailed by Chris Shipley, executive producer of DEMO, as “a new baseline for practical knowledge sharing.”

Company Facts:

Founded in 2005.

Yossi Dan, co-founder & CEO.

Leverages Adobe Air.

Products: KonoLive, Page2Go, Sign2Go and MyNotes SDK.